CHARLOTTE - Former Appalachian State head football coach Scott Satterfield spoke to the media Wednesday at the ACC Kickoff ahead of his first season leading the red and white of Louisville.
Satterfield, who led the Mountaineers to a 51-24 record, won three consecutive conference championships and four straight bowl games in his six seasons at the helm of his alma mater, is preparing to take on a new challenge in the ACC after he was hired by Cardinals’ athletic director Vince Tyra on Dec. 4, 2018.
The former App State quarterback and eventual head coach takes over a Louisville program that went just 2-10 overall and 0-8 in conference play last season. He certainly has his work cut out for him but, if he can emulate what he did with the Mountaineers, the Cardinals are in good hands going forward.
But while Satterfield left Boone professionally, he still loves his school and will always be a major part of the culture that’s been established on the mountain. As a new coach, though, he was asked plenty about his time at App and why he left for the Louisville job.
Here’s what Satterfield had to say about those things during his interview breakout session Wednesday at The Westin:
Why Louisville and why now? Why did it make sense at this point in your career?
SATTERFIELD: “Well, I think for several reasons. Number one, at App the last four years we went to four straight bowl games and won four straight bowl games and won three conference championships. What else can you do there? I don’t know what else you can do at App State. The only thing we didn’t do was play in a New Year’s bowl game and that also takes an extremely special year.
“And I love App, 23 years I spent there, a lot of time. But the opportunity to be a head coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference is a tremendous honor for me. Having known this conference, these jobs just don’t come available very often. So, if that is a goal or a dream of yours you’ve got to take advantage of it. After meeting with Vince Tyra, the athletic director, I think it’s a great fit.
“Here’s the thing that’s kind of weird when you these jobs like this. We played for a conference championship on Saturday against Louisiana Lafayette and then Sunday I meet with Vince (Tyra) and Monday I get offered the job. You don’t have time to do a bunch of research, you’re either going to go take it or you’re not. So, it was a great opportunity, a lot of good tradition there so I said, ‘let’s go do it.’ ”
At Appalachian, you had the experience of shepherding a program from FCS to FBS. What are some of the experiences you went through at App that you brought with you to Louisville?
SATTERFIELD: “When I took over at App, we were going from the Southern Conference to the Sun Belt conference, which is a step up and then there was a lot of things we had to do. We went from 63 scholarships to 85 scholarships and you kind of had to build that team out to be competitive. And we’re already doing that here. The fact that Louisville’s already been playing in the ACC now for five years and have had some really good success. Lamar Jackson, Teddy Bridgewater, they’ve had some great players. It’s a town that is yearning I think to put a great product on the field.
“I’m going to draw from that experience I had at App of how we want to build our team out as we move forward. People want to throw the word ‘culture' around a lot and we’re coming in there and changing the way we do things, which is culture. But you have to be consistent on a daily basis and I think that’s what we’re trying to be.”
When you were an outstanding quarterback at Orange High in Hillsboro, North Carolina, did you ever envision yourself being an ACC coach? Now that you're here, why do you believe you'll succeed?
SATTERFIELD: “Back then probably not. I was just trying to be a good quarterback for Orange High School at that point. Just scrap my way around.
“It's a dream come true to be here, it really is. Having grown up right there in Durham, then going to Orange, right here in ACC country, with Carolina, Duke, State, Wake, all these teams... It's just a dream come true.
“Very humbled and honored to be the head coach here. I think once I got into coaching, I think you always have visions of being at a place with the highest level where you have an opportunity to compete for national championships. I think that certainly was a goal of mine.
“But I've always been in a thing where wherever I'm at I want to do the best job I can do. My first job at App State was coaching wide receivers, wanted to do the best job I could do back in '98. Running backs, quarterbacks, calling plays. Then being the head coach at App State the last six years, a tremendous honor, too.
“We'll have success at Louisville. It's a great town, a great place. A lot of great people. We will have a lot of success here at Louisville.”
When you were at Appalachian, you had the experience of shepherding a program from FCS to FBS. You took the team to bowl games as an FBS team in three consecutive years. I don't think that's been done before. What are some of the experiences you went through that you can draw on now? You'd have to call this a rebuilding situation a little.
SATTERFIELD: “It's very similar, I think. When I took over at App, we were going from the Southern Conference to the Sunbelt Conference, which is a step up. There's a lot of things we had to do. We went from 63 scholarships to 85 scholarships. You had to build that team out to be competitive.
“We're kind of doing that here. The fact that Louisville has already been in the ACC for five years, had some really good success there, with Lamar Jackson, Teddy Bridgewater, has had some great players. It's a town that is yearning I think to put a great product on the field.
“I'm going to draw from that experience that I had at App of how we want to build our team out as we move forward. It takes a little bit of time. Obviously people throw the world "culture" around a lot. We're changing the way we do things, which is culture. But you have to be consistent on a daily basis. I think that's what we're trying to be.
“Our strength staff is around these guys all the time. They're very consistent in their approach of how we do things. It's the same way with the coaching staff. I think the way we'll end up doing it is through our players, though. They got to take ownership of the team. They got to be prideful about what they put on the field. When you turn the film on, what are you going to see right there? How hard are you playing? Are you doing it the right way?
“Those are the things we're working on, that we're doing now. That's how we'll have success. People talk about, How are you going to measure success next fall? It's not in terms of wins and loss es for me, it's in terms of attitude and effort on a daily basis. That's going to be how we determine success.
“If you're doing that, we're doing those kind of things, we will end up winning games, we will end up having a very successful program. But it starts on a daily basis of how you carry yourself, what kind of attitude and effort do you have.”
NOTE: The newly formed ACC Network also announced its plans to air an all-access show on Louisville football. The show airs on Sept. 1 and will give an in-depth look into Satterfield’s preparations ahead of the 2019 football season.
